There are many ways to live life. Some people choose to take a positive role in certain situations. They may do this in their personal or professional relationships.
Such people often prepare properly before going into a specific situation. Different people do this in different ways. Some may explore the following questions.
What is the situation I am going into? What are the things I can and can’t control in the situation? Bearing these in mind, what are the things I do and don’t want to do in the situation?
What is the positive role I want to take in the situation? How can I support people and, if appropriate, help them to get positive results? What may or may not happen as a result of taking these steps?
Such people sometimes rehearse before going into the situation. They rehearse: a) how they can do their best; b) how they can support people; c) how they can manage any challenges.
As mentioned, they may do this in personal or professional situations. Let’s explore how they may take these steps.
Taking A Positive
Role With Customers
Imagine that you are providing services for a customer. You may choose to take positive role to help them to succeed. Different people do this in different ways.
Great workers prepare properly and rehearse what they are going to do before meeting as customer. Some may the following questions.
Who is the customer that I am going to meet? What is happening in their world? What are the challenges they face? What are their goals? How can I use my strengths to help them to achieve success?
Such workers make such meetings about the customer rather than about them. They aim to create a positive atmosphere, clarify what the customer wants to explore and agree on the goals for the meeting.
They take a positive role in the meeting. They do this whether they are acting as a service provider, a customer account manager or as a trusted advisor.
Such workers keep focusing on the customer’s aims. When appropriate, they use their skills or pass on knowledge in ways that can help the customer to succeed.
Taking A Positive Role
In A Leadership Team
Imagine that you were recently promoted to the C-suite of a company. At first you found this encouraging but have since found some leadership team meetings to be challenging.
How to manage such a situation? Several years ago I held mentoring sessions with a person who encountered this challenge. They explained this in the following way.
“Several months ago I was promoted and joined the leadership team. But to be honest I am finding some situations to be difficult. I am wondering how I can make a contribution.
“The various heads of department seem to be just focusing on own agendas. This can result in people talking across each other and not trying to find solutions that can help the company.
“Being an introvert, I like to reflect and be sure of the facts before expressing an opinion. This does not fit with the culture in the leadership team which is dominated by people who speak loudest.
“Whilst I want to be part of the leadership team, I also want to be true to myself. Have you any suggestions about how I may be able to make a contribution?”
We explored how they could take a positive role in the meetings. They could support people and sometimes share possible solutions. If appropriate, they could take a strategic role and encourage people to keep focusing on the company’s goals.
Being an introvert, it would be important for them to prepare properly for the sessions. One approach would be for them to take some of the following steps. But only if they felt comfortable doing these things.
They could clarify the positive role they wanted to play in the meetings. They could support people and, when appropriate, use their own specialist knowledge to help the company to achieve its goals.
They could try to do this in a way that showed respect for people’s contributions and yet also encouraged people to keep working toward the company’s goals.
They needed to be comfortable with whatever role they played, however, rather than do things that were out of character. They needed to play to their strengths and follow their successful style of sharing knowledge.
They could therefore prepare properly for the meeting because this could help them to make their best contribution. They could clarify the topics to be discussed and how these related to achieving the company’s goals.
They could, when people were discussing a topic, think about the input they wanted to make. They could rehearse what they wanted to say and, when appropriate, aim to share this in a way that could help people in the team.
They could do this by waiting for a short lull in the conversation and, providing people had not already moved on to the next topic, share their ideas. They could, in their own way, say something along the following lines.
“Building on what people have said, there are several options for tackling the challenge. These include the following: A, B and C. Another option could be D.
“Like all the options, this has pluses and minuses. It is one route, however, they could maybe tackle the challenge and also help us to keep working towards the company’s goals.”
They would need to feel comfortable with their own approach to offering ideas, however, and use their own words. They would need to just see it as a contribution rather than expecting people to take the ideas onboard.
The person followed elements of this approach. After a few false starts, they found it was possible to make positive contributions to some of the topics that came up in the C-suite meetings.
There was also another side-effect. Some heads of department followed up with the person to ask their views about challenges in their own areas. This helped to develop the person’s positive role in the leadership team.
Taking A Positive
Role As A Team
Good leaders often encourage their team to take a positive role. This was the approach taken by a newly appointed Chief People Officer when they took over the HR team in a company.
The leader aimed to do this in a positive way. But it also called for encouraging the HR team to focus on the service role they played in the company.
The CPO did some research before taking the leadership role. This revealed that some people in the HR team kept complaining that the company leaders needed to show they valued the HR function.
This highlighted a challenge. Several members of the HR team had chosen to do their own thing that did not necessarily contribute to achieving the company goals.
The CPO had individual sessions with key people in the team before meeting them in a group. They then the positive role that the team could play in the company. They expressed this in the following way.
“The people strategy plays a vital part in helping the company to achieve success. That also involves us using our strengths to help to make this happen.
“Bearing this in mind, I would like you to imagine a different kind of scenario. Imagine that our team is an outside company that is providing HR services to the company.
“We are also on a rolling contract that has to be renewed every six months. It is our job to serve the company rather the company’s job to do things to serve us.
“Imagine that we are such an outside company. It would probably be important to do some of the following things.
“To clarify the specific principles that the company wants its people to follow – such as the behaviours it wants people to demonstrate – to help the company to achieve success.
“To clarify the specific outcomes that the company therefore wants us to deliver in terms of people demonstrating these behaviours and helping the company to achieve success.
“To then use our strengths to do superb work that helps to deliver these outcomes and enables the company to achieve both present and future success.
“Bearing these things in mind, I am inviting you to take time to reflect and decide if you want to contribute to achieving these goals.
“If so, then we can make clear contracts about how you can use your strengths to help to achieve these goals.
“It may be that you would prefer to do something else. This is something I will respect and, as far as possible, try to find possible solutions.
“Our role as the HR team is: a) to focus on the company’s goals; b) to clarify the outcomes the company wants us to deliver; c) to provide great service that delivers the outcomes and helps the company to achieve success.
“I am happy to answer any questions regarding the reasons for going this route. I will then be meeting with each of you individually to clarify whether you want to build on your strengths and make a contribution.”
The CPO presented this in a professional way but some people found it challenging. Some had previously seen it as the company’s job to serve them rather than their job to serve the company.
The company obviously needed to provide support to help the HR team to deliver the required outcomes. But it was not the company’s role to support some people who wanted to do their own thing.
The CPO gave people chance to reflect. Two-thirds of the team chose to focus on how to make their best contributions. Some people said they wanted to do this but did not deliver. Some moved on to other jobs.
The rejuvenated HR team focused on taking a positive role and built a reputation as valuable partners. They did practical work that supported the people strategy and helped the company to achieve its goals.
Taking A Positive Role
With People
Imagine that you want to take a positive role with people. Bearing this in mind, you may explore some of the following questions.
How can I take a positive role towards my loved ones? How can I encourage them in my role as a partner or parent? If appropriate, how can I do my best to support my parents as they get older?
How can I take a positive role towards my friends and companions? How can I encourage them in their daily lives or work. If appropriate, how can I help them to work towards their personal or professional goals?
How can I take a positive role towards people at work? How can I encourage my colleagues and customers? How can I help them to achieve success?
How can I take a positive role towards both present and future generations? How can I encourage them? How can I pass on knowledge that helps them to achieve success?
How can I take a positive role towards myself? How can I encourage myself and maintain a sense of perspective? How can I follow my principles and work towards my picture of success? How can I sometimes experience a sense of peace?
There are many ways to live life. One approach is to take a positive role in certain situations. It is then to encourage people and, when appropriate, help them to achieve their goals.
Let’s return to your own life and work. Looking ahead, can you think of a situation where you may want to follow elements of this approach? How can you do this in your own way?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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